Bata

Bata began as a small coastal settlement on the Río Muni shore, in Fang and coastal Ndowe country, and grew into the mainland's main port under Spanish administration. Spain took a serious interest in the mainland only from the 1880s, when coastal towns signed protectorate treaties, and fixed the borders of Río Muni by the Treaty of Paris with France in 1900 and extending control inland over the following decades. Bata became the administrative centre of that mainland province, exporting timber and coffee through its port, and much of its planned centre was laid out from the 1950s.

After independence in 1968 the country entered the years of Francisco Macías Nguema's rule, during which tens of thousands of people fled the country. After anti-Spanish riots in 1969 most of Bata's European population left, and the city went through severe economic stagnation in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Recovery came with the oil boom, which drove the city's development from the late 1980s and 1990s. Bata gained one of the deepest seaports in the region, expanded with Chinese loans, new highways running inland, a large stadium and the long seafront promenade, and its population grew quickly with migration from the interior. In March 2021 a series of explosions at a military base in the city killed more than 100 people. Bata is now the largest city in the country and the main city of the mainland, the nearest large town to the new inland capital at Ciudad de la Paz.

Bata is a Fang city above all: the Fang, the largest people of the mainland and also spread across Gabon and Cameroon, dominate its life and language, alongside coastal Ndowe communities, whose country Bata once was, and immigrants from elsewhere in Africa. Spanish is the common language of school, office and street sign, with Fang spoken at home and French and Portuguese present officially.

The Fang cultural inheritance includes the mvet, a harp-zither whose music is learned by initiates of the bebom-mvet society, and reliquary sculpture that inspired much of the European avant-garde art of the twentieth century. Drumming, dance and masquerade belong to weddings, funerals and community celebrations, and family obligation and respect for elders remain strong.

Catholicism is deeply rooted: Sunday mass, patron saints' days, Holy Week and Christmas are the fixed points of the public calendar, and church choirs are among the liveliest musical life in the city. Older beliefs persist alongside church practice. Public cultural expression is limited by tight restrictions on media and assembly, so most social life happens in the family, the church, the market and, in the evening, along the seafront, where football and music are the shared enthusiasms.

Bata had about 310,000 residents at the last census, making it the largest city in Equatorial Guinea and the centre of the mainland region where most of the country's people live. Growth has come from migration out of the forest interior, and most residents live in low-built districts spreading inland from the old centre rather than near the sea.

The economy rests on the port, on government administration, on construction work financed by oil revenue, and on trade — much of it informal, run through the market and on the street. Fishing and small-scale farming of cassava, plantain and cocoa supply the city from the surrounding country. Formal jobs are scarce relative to the number of young people, imported goods are costly, and power and water supply are uneven outside the centre. The economic downturns of recent years have slowed construction and made work harder to find.

The rhythm of the day follows the heat and the rain. Markets and building sites start at first light, the middle of the day is slow, and the late afternoon brings the city back out — taxis full, stalls lit, and the promenade crowded with families, footballers and food sellers until late.

Bata eats the food of the mainland forest and the Atlantic coast. Cassava, plantain, yam, cocoyam and rice are the bases, cooked with sauces of groundnut, palm oil and pounded leaves. Bambucha, crushed cassava leaves boiled with palm-kernel juice and spices, is a national standard, and pepesup, a fiery fish soup, is the dish most identified with the country as a whole.

Fish dominates the coast: grilled whole over charcoal, smoked for keeping, or stewed with tomato, onion and chilli, and served with fried plantain or cassava sticks. Game and bushmeat from the interior also reach the market, along with snails, and the cooking is known for its strong flavours and heavy spice. Dishes taken from neighbours and the colonial power include the Cameroonian ndolé and the Spanish tortilla.

The Spanish inheritance is visible in bread and pastries and in coffee drunk in the Spanish style. Topé, the local palm wine, and malamba are the traditional drinks, alongside imported beer and Spanish wine in the restaurants of the centre.